Memories of Rain -

Views from the Underground
Szenen aus dem Untergrund
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Whilst watching Memories of Rain these questions inescapably reach into the reunified present. One cannot but think of the German-German situation. It cannot be a mistake to make oneself aware of the fact from time to time that there are forms of growing together which we find practically impossible to imagine.
Bartholomeus Grill, "Die Zeit"

Both perpetrator and victim remain unredeemed. That is what gives this film its credibility. "Memories of Rain" is a great and painful story about the ambiguity of history. The memories become blurred with the streaks of rain which cloud the view and simultaneously clarify the vision. Nothing will come right, but was it wrong?
BerlinerZeitung 06.02.04

Gisela Albrecht and Angela Mai’s "Memories of Rain – Views from the Underground" tells the story of two very different people who both fought as commanders in the intelligence service of the ANC against the Apartheid government.

It is an extraordinary film that pieces together forgotten histories to give us a perspective of what it must have been like to abandon ordinary existence for lives lived in camouflage, in exile, in invisibility, in violence, all for the greater good. Even if the links between the means and the ends became blurry at times…
The film is all the more extraordinary for the fact that it manages to be riveting over the course of three hours of face-to-face interviews …
The Independent on Saturday 19.06.04

Rain falls down in typical highveld fashion, the sky darkens, the grass looks greener.
Rain features heavily in "Memories of Rain"……
This is a striking, powerful documentary that lays bare the emotional and physical pain that came with being part of the ANC underground, and must surely count as one of the "must-sees" of the Encounters 2004 festival. "Memories" is directed by Gisela Albrecht and Angela Mai …
"Memories of Rain" remains indelibly etched on my mind …
The Sunday Independent July 18 2004

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